Cattle and Beef Markets

Last week was awash in downward markets and concerns of a financial nature. With international financial uncertainties in Asia and Greece, and seasonal beef demand less than what it should or could be, the cattle and beef world did not escape unscathed with futures and beef cutouts plunging.

The JBS acquisition includes two Midwest meat processing plants; one in Ottumwa, IA, and the other at Beardstown, IL. Both plants were acquired by Cargill in 1987, and in 2014 they processed a total of 9.3 million hogs. The purchase also includes five feed mills—two in Missouri, and one each in Arkansas, Iowa and Texas—and four hog farms—two in.

Beef exports moved counter-seasonally lower in May, dropping 14 percent from a year ago to 88,466 metric tons (mt). Export value dipped lower year-over-year for the first time since January, reaching only $556.7 million (down 6 percent). For January through May, exports totaled 430,393 mt, down 10 percent from the same period in 2014.

A difficult question for many agricultural families today is deciding how to leave a fair inheritance for each of their children. It’s common to have one child who has stayed on the place and other children who have pursued different careers. The parents often desire to keep the farm/ranch in the family.

In a statement delivered in the Rose Garden, Obama said, “In January of 1961, the year I was born, when President Eisenhower announced the termination of our relations with Cuba, he said: ‘It is my hope and my conviction that in the not-too-distant...

When shopping at the meat counter this Fourth of July, consumers noticed differences in prices per pound compared to last year. A pound of pork chops sold for $3.79 in May 2015 compared to $4.11 per pound in May 2014, a decrease of 7.8 percent. The price of boneless chicken breasts has also fallen, decreasing by 1.

Producers have many options when it comes to choosing a time and a method to market their calves. There is the option to market calves at weaning straight from the cow, the option to market calves after a backgrounding period, the option to market...

For a short marketing week, there was no shortage of activity last week. Negotiated cash fed cattle trade got underway earlier than normal with packers trying to buy for a full production week while butted up to a holiday.

The cash fed cattle trade got underway last Thursday with almost 35,000 head confirmed sold on the negotiated market. Prices for live steers ranged from $147- 150—steady to lower compared to the prior week’s $149-150—and dressed steers were down $2-3 at $235-240.

The top cattle-feeding states were very mixed but mostly lower than the national average, meaning a lot of the year-to-year increase came from smaller cattle-feeding states. Both Colorado and Texas saw 2 percent declines in their on-feed populations at 890,000 and 2.

Historically small U.S. cattle inventory continues to support high beef prices in 2015, but at least in the short term, increasing imports of processing beef (especially from Australia) and heavy carcass weights have helped moderate some of the price pressures.

At 468.56 million pounds of beef in storage, beef stores were up 24 percent compared to last year, but down 3 percent from the prior month. The buildup was entirely credited to increased supplies of boneless beef, most of it likely from Australia given the still-favorable import environment.

The Agricultural Act of 2014 gradually reduces the cap on land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) from 32 million acres to 24 million acres by 2017. CRP acreage declined 34 percent since 2007, falling from 36.8 million acres to 24.2 million by April 2015.

Packers held off buying cash fed cattle last week until the very end. By Thursday, barely more than 4,000 head had been confirmed sold for the week. Live heifers were listed as $150 and dressed steers were listed as $241-243, though the volumes were too light to make these numbers relevant.

The IRC Section 1031 Exchange is one of the most powerful tax saving and wealth building tools available for families selling highly appreciated farm/ ranch land. A properly structured 1031 exchange allows a family selling a farm or ranch to sell land, to reinvest the proceeds in other “like-kind” real estate, and to defer capital gain taxes.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the authority to conduct monetary policy. Beginning with the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, Congress has delegated this authority to the Federal Reserve (Fed). Congress has provided the Fed with a dual mandate: price stability and maximum employment.

“Growers have the newest fleet of equipment in the last 40 years. They can run without high repair bills,” notes Wade Litton, General Manager of Wade Inc., a John Deere dealership with 11 locations in the Mississippi Delta. Well-tooled operations combined with an abrupt collapse in grain farm incomes and uncertainty over Sec.

The most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, released last Wednesday, altered estimates for beef production and trade. The result is a mostly mixed situation compared to pork and chicken. Estimates on corn production and supply changed only slightly.